Budget Cap report delayed further
F1’s governing body has delayed the publication of its inquiries into whether any team breached the sport’s budget cap last year. The FIA told F1 teams last week that it planned to issue certificates of compliance or otherwise on 5 October.
But the FIA said in a statement on Wednesday that it was “a long and complex process that is ongoing”. It would be “concluded to enable the release of the certificates on Monday, 10 October.” The delay is likely to annoy teams and full allegations that teams, mainly Red Bull have breached the cap, which it denies.
Wednesday’s delay is the fourth time the FIA has given teams a date only to push it back. At first, teams were told the results would be published on Friday 30 September, then Monday 3 October, and then 5 October.
Ferrari and Mercedes said last week in Singapore, it was an ‘open secret’ that two teams had broken the £114m cap. While neither would name Red Bull as a team, Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff did refer to specific allegations that have been made about Red Bull.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner reacted angrily to his rivals’ interventions, saying he regarded the remarks as defamatory and would take further action if they were not withdrawn. Mercedes and Ferrari rejected Horner’s request. Horner insisted that he was “absolutely confident” in Red Bull’s submission to the FIA, adding: “We believe we are comfortably within the cap.”
The FIA said: “There has been significant and unsubstantiated speculation and conjecture in relation to this matter, and the FIA reiterates that until it is finalised, no further information will be provided. The FIA also reiterates that any suggestion that FIA personnel have disclosed sensitive information is equally baseless.”
There are two levels of offence according to F1’s financial regulations – ‘minor’ and ‘material’. The dividing line between the two is 5% of the cap, or $7.25m last year. BBC News says it has been told that any breach last year is minor.
Potential penalties for a minor offence include a reprimand; deduction of constructors’ or drivers’ championship points for the year in question; suspension; limitations on aerodynamic or other testing; a reduction of that team’s cost cap. For a material breach, the possibility of exclusion from the championship is included.
The budget cap is reduced to $140m in 2022 and is coming down to $135m in 2023. The exchange rate is fixed to the pound at a specific level, so the cap is not affected by the recent reduction in the value of sterling.
Verstappen needs a “perfect weekend” to clinch title
Max Verstappen says he needs a “perfect weekend” if he is to clinch his second world title at the Japanese Grand Prix. The Dutchman can seal his second world championship if he wins the race and takes the fastest lap. In other circumstances, it depends on where Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez finish.
F1 returns to Suzuka this weekend following a two-year hiatus caused by the pandemic. Verstappen said that Red Bull’s relationship with engine supplier Honda meant that the race at Suzuka was “extra special” for the team.
Verstappen said, “It would be very nice if it happens here but if it doesn’t, it will be even more in favour at the next race. It doesn’t really change anything – you just try to maximise everything you can. I need a perfect weekend to clinch the title here but to be honest I am not really thinking about it too much.”
Honda officially pulled out of F1 at the end of last season but has continued to build and supply engines to Red Bull under a relationship dubbed “technical support”. However, the Honda branding will return to Red Bull and sister team Alpha Tauri for the first time since the final race of last season in what Red Bull and Honda said was a “strengthening of the partnership”.
Verstappen says “Honda never really left,” which underlines the feeling that Honda was still involved in F1 this year, despite saying it was quitting to focus on zero-emission mobility.
To seal his second title in Japan, Verstappen needs to gain eight points on Leclerc and ten on Perez, the only two other drivers still in with a mathematical chance of the title. He holds a hundred and four-point lead over Leclerc and a further two over Perez.
The championship has not been sealed in Japan since 2011 with four races to go when Sebastian Vettel won the second of his four consecutive championships.
There are many different scenarios. But for example, if Verstappen wins but does not take the fastest lap, he needs Leclerc to finish lower than second place to be sure of the title. If Verstappen is second, he needs Leclerc to be lower than fourth and Perez to be lower than fifth.
Leclerc was forty-six points clear of Verstappen after the first three races of the season but has seen Ferrari’s season implode after a series of operational and strategic errors by the team in addition to reliability problems.
Leclerc said: “Realistically, Max is going to be champion. If it’s not this weekend, it is going to be very soon. We need to focus on ourselves and try to exercise well the Sunday. We have always been strong and the performance has always been good enough to fight for wins apart from some off-weekends, and there weren’t many.”
Mercedes driver George Russell said he believed he and team-mate Lewis Hamilton could also feature in the battle at the front this weekend in Japan.
Hamilton hints about long-term future
Lewis Hamilton has confirmed he plans to stay in Formula One beyond the length of his current contract with Mercedes. The seven-time world champion has a deal to race until the end of 2023 but has hinted on several occasions that he is considering staying longer.
In an interview with Channel 4, Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff said that Hamilton had talked about staying for another five years, and while Hamilton wouldn’t be drawn on the specific length of time, he said he intends to remain in F1 beyond his current contract.
he said “I know what I want to do, I plan on staying longer. It’s just not set in stone how long. I plan on staying with Mercedes for the rest of my life, that’s a definite. It’s more figuring out what we are going to do down the line, even beyond racing I want to be building with Mercedes and there is a lot that Mercedes can do, it’s not just a car manufacturer.”
“It provides so many jobs for so many people and it has such a powerful platform to really shift narratives and it has a place where it can have a really positive impact on the environment, there’s loads of things that we can do together and I want to be a part of that.”
Hamilton says he wants to be part of that shift and process with Mercedes beyond winning races and championships, calling it the immediate focus. The seven-time champion missed out on his eighth title after Michael Masi failed to apply the rules correctly on the final lap restart in Abu Dhabi. That allowed Max Verstappen to pass him on the last lap and win the race, thus taking the title.
But Hamilton insists beating Verstappen is not his main reason for staying in F1, instead pointing to work he has done to increase diversity in the sport. Hamilton also made reference to his charitable foundation, Mission 44, which he set up last year to boost social mobility for children from underrepresented groups in the UK.
when asked if dethroning Verstappen was his main motivator for staying in F1 he said, “Less than you’d think. I think it’s more just where I am in life. I’ve got great things happening outside, I’ve got a lot of freedom to be able to do things, I’m building things outside of the sport with my foundation that I’ve just started, and it’s going to take a lot of work.”
That new focus has only grown, dating back to the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, the impact on BAME people caused by coronavirus, equality and the war in Ukraine, only a few examples. Inequality and diversity have become his focus, as he wants to help shape a “more open and inclusive environment here in this sport, and I’ve got to stay to help that continue.”
In his late thirties, Hamilton says he feels “healthier than ever” and still “loves racing.”
“Imperative” that suitable punishments are given – Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton says it is “imperative” that suitable punishments are meted out for any team found to have broken the budget cap. The FIA will reveal on Monday which teams exceeded it last season, after delaying the publication.
Last weekend, Mercedes and Ferrari sad it was an open secret that two teams broke the cost cap last season. It is widely expected within the sport that Red Bull and Aston Martin will be found not to have been in compliance in 2021 when the results are published.
Hamilton said: “I like to think that if it’s being delayed, it’s because it’s being taken very seriously. It would be bad for the sport if action wasn’t taken if there was a breach.”
BBC News says it has been told by senior sources if any team is found to have been in a breach last year, the offence is likely to be minor. While Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has insisted that he is “absolutely confident” in Red Bull’s submission to the FIA, adding: “We believe we are comfortably within the cap.”
Hamilton, who was engaged in a close and fractious battle with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the championship last year, said he had “trust” in FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem to “do what is right for the sport” He says it is imperative that punishments are handed out for the integrity of the sport.
He added: “As a driver, you are always asking for updates. In Silverstone, we got our last update and that was [worth] almost 0.3secs. And I am pretty certain it cost less than a million. Maybe in time [working hours] it cost more.”
Last season Hamilton admitted that seeing Red Bull bring more and more upgrades that means they were going to be difficult to beat as they were bringing upgrades. He says it would have been easy for Mercedes to bring upgrades, but the team were strict and stuck to it.
News in Brief
Channel 4 retains free-to-air rights
Channel 4 has announced it will continue to broadcast F1 highlights free-to-air in the UK and Ireland through 2023 as part of a deal with Sky Sports. Last week, F1 announced it had extended its agreement with Sky to enjoy exclusive live broadcast rights in the UK until 2029.
While no announcement was made about the free-to-air partner for 2023 last week it was expected Channel 4 would retain the rolling one-year deal. It will continue to show highlights of qualifying and races for every race, as well as live coverage of every session for the British Grand Prix. The BBC retains an unchanged deal for free-to-air live radio and online rights until 2024.
Latifi frustrated by quick FIA decision on Zhou clash
Nicholas Latifi was left frustrated following Singapore after receiving a grid penalty for his incident with Zhou Guanyu without being able to put his case to the FIA stewards. The pair collided early in the race when Latifi moved across on Zhou, with the contact ending the Alfa Romeo driver’s race on the spot.
Latifi picked up a puncture and after making it back to the pits he was forced to retire with suspension damage. He has a five-place grid penalty for this weekend as well as gaining two points on his licence
Ecclestone to face fraud trial in October 2023
Former F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone will stand trial in October 2023 over alleged failure to declare about £400m in overseas assets. The ninety-one-year-old appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, charged with a single count of fraud by false representation.
Ecclestone, who denied the allegations in August, is accused of failing to declare a trust in Singapore with a bank account containing funds of around $650m.
The charge brought against him in July followed an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs, which said the probe had been “complex and worldwide”, relating to a period between 13 July 2013 and 5 October 2016.
Ecclestone is alleged to have disclosed “only a single trust” to tax authorities, one in favour of his daughters, according to the charge read at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in July.
The court heard he said he was “not the settler or the beneficiary of any other trust” but the prosecution alleged the businessman acted “with the intention of making a gain for yourself”.
Judge Deborah Taylor fixed a trial date for 9 October 2023. Prosecutor Alexander Langhorn said the trial would be expected to last six weeks, potentially sitting half days because of the “defendant’s fitness to participate”.
Gasly & Alpha Tauri agree Singapore they made wrong call
Pierre Gasly says he has talked through the frustrations he experienced after what he deemed was a premature call by his AlphaTauri team to pit for slicks during the Singapore Grand Prix.
The Frenchman was one of the first drivers to abandon intermediates on the drying track, but the decision dropped him several places as those who stayed out continued to lap quickly. He eventually finished tenth while his usual midfield rivals McLaren pitted late, resulting in Lando Norris finishing fourth and Daniel Ricciardo fifth.
After the race, Gasly criticised the decision to stop and lose track position and bemoaned the lack of communication with the pit wall. However, since then he’s been able to discuss the issues with his engineers.
Asked by Motorsport.com, about his disappointment in Singapore, he said “Obviously, you know how competitive we all are. When we have a big result that, and I truly believe we could have equalled our best result of the year with a fifth place, looking at where Daniel finished, obviously I was extremely disappointed.”
“So, we looked at everything. It was pretty clear what we did wrong, and we should have stayed out for a couple more laps. And we discussed everything through. And once it’s done, unfortunately, you can’t change the outcome. It’s done and we move on from that.”
Gasly conceded that based on the information the team had done the best with the data that it had at the time: “I mean, they did it based on some, based on some information. But I think we all agree, unfortunately, it wasn’t the right thing to do with hindsight.”
He added that he wasn’t underestimating how much was going on, on the pit wall in that situation and the whole team knows they could have dealt with that differently and would do it differently.
In the coming days, Gasly is expected to be announced as an Alpine driver in the coming days, although he continues to decline to comment on the subject. He insists that nothing has changed in the way he works at the team that he remains contracted to.
Alpine paying price for a “courageous” development push
Alpine chief technical officer Pat Fry says that the team is paying the inevitable price for a “courageous” development push with Renault’s engine. The French manufacturers’ engine has lagged behind its rivals over the last few years, but they have seen their performance improve greatly.
However, there have been ongoing reliability issues, and both Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon dropped out of the points with engine failures in Singapore. Alonso is likely to need to take another power unit, thus incurring a grid penalty while they hope that Ocon can make it to the end of the season with no new elements.
Fry told Motorsport.com, “There are always teething problems. We took a lot on this year, changing a huge amount. And we’re a huge amount better off in terms of performance for what was done over the last couple of years, really.”
“Some great work has gone on, but it was always done knowing that we’d chase performance and reliability we’ll fix. And I think that’s a courageous way about moving forward, isn’t it? Every now and then you get caught out, as everyone does.”
However, the concern for Renault will be the two failures that occurred in Singapore were not related.
Ocon was frustrated by the issues and not to finish the race, in what he says were competitive cars and with the upgrades working. He added, “We just need to run two normal weekends, on both sides. And to score the points that we can with the car we have, because it’s more than possible.”
“What I know is that we had a couple of issues in that race at the start, and obviously the failure later on. So it’s not something that normally happens because the engine normally ran smoothly in the rest of the year.”
Fry noted that the Renault engineers already understand what failed in Singapore, and are now working on why it happened. He added, “They were different problems. The engines were back on Tuesday lunchtime, stripped and understood, and we’re working on it.”
Fry says the issues were relatively new and need to be understood.
Vettel would “seriously consider” one-off return
Sebastian Vettel would “seriously consider” making a one-off return in the future if he was offered the chance to race at Suzuka again. The four time champion announced in Budapest that he would retire from the sport at the end of the season bringing his fifteen-year career to an end.
It means this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix will be Vettel’s final scheduled appearance at Suzuka, a track he has always named as his favourite and where he has scored four wins. Vettel also clinched his second F1 title at Suzuka in 2011, and admitted it “does feel a bit different” knowing it is his last Japanese Grand Prix compared to other events.
Asked by Motorsport.com if he had any interest in trying Japanese categories in the future so he could race at Suzuka again, Vettel felt he could “never say never.”
“Obviously I love driving, and around this track, I always felt very alive and the passion always felt very alive. We’ll see what type of car maybe in the future will come up. Maybe one of these guys [the other F1 drivers] in the future races here will feel a bit sick, I don’t know. I don’t wish them to feel so!”
Vettel said while he has no plans he believes that their has been exciting races at Suzuka, he does think there has been exciting races in Japan. Vettel confirmed that he was being serious in his comment, smirking at the idea of returning for a “one-race career.”
Vettel scored all four of his Suzuka wins with Red Bull, the first coming in 2009. He is also the most recent polesitter for the Japanese Grand Prix from 2019, when he was racing for Ferrari.
The weekend ahead
This weekend F1 returns to Suzuka where Max Verstappen has the next opportunity to wrap his second title up if he has a hundred and twelve point lead by the end of the weekend. We heard him say in Singapore this is the race where he would like to do it because of the teams links to Honda.
The debate continues to be about who has broken the cap, we know allegedly Red Bull and one other team are to have, these certifications were due to be issued at the end of September. Rumours will continue until the report is published and I’m not really surprised that this is taking a while as it is new regulations, and interruption is key.
Suzuka is a high speed technical circuit meaning that teams need to get the balance right, it has traditionally been tougher to overtake. Also its an old school circuit meaning that mistakes can be costly and that means divers may need to build into the weekend. In qualifying and the race, they need to be careful and take advantage where possible as this isn’t the easiest circuit to overtake.
Mercedes could struggle this weekend as we know the car hasn’t really been strong at undulating circuits this season, so while progress has been made I think this is an important race to resolve this going to Austin and Interlagos. But we know the second half of the season has been stronger for the team, so I think Saturday is when we see their potential
